With allegations of voter suppression in Arizona, as well as questions about the Clinton campaign’s tactics in Iowa, Nevada, and other states, some historical context is needed. In 2008, The Atlantic published an article explaining “dirty politics” and voting “irregularities” titled Obama Manager Accuses Clintons of Widespread Dirty Politics:

David Plouffe, in a succinct statement appended to a released quotation from his boss, Barack Obama, said the Obama campaign was investigating more than 200 reporters of irregularities in Nevada.

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.”

Plouffe asks Nevadans to call a toll-free number… and report any other problems.

Sound familiar? Every single one of the voting irregularities Plouffe complained about in 2008 have been experienced by the Bernie Sanders campaign.

SPOKANE, Wash. – Buoyed by a new national poll putting him ahead of Hillary Clinton and outpacing Republican White House hopefuls by big margins, Bernie Sanders returned here for a rally on Thursday two days ahead of contests in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.

The new Bloomberg Politics national poll found that Sanders is now the first choice of 49 percent of those who already have voted or plan to vote in this year’s Democratic contests. The former secretary of state was the choice of 48 percent.

Looking ahead to November’s general election, Sanders was 24 points ahead of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He outpolled U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas by 12 points and held a four-point lead over Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Clinton, in sharp contrast, lost to Kasich by four points and held much narrower leads than Sanders over Cruz and Trump.

The Bloomberg survey was only the latest in a string of polls putting Sanders way ahead of Trump and doing consistently better than Clinton against Trump and the other Republicans in a general election. According toRealClearPolitics, Sanders led Trump on average by 17.5 percentage points in national surveys in March. The U.S. senator from Vermont beat the real estate tycoon by 20 points in a CNN/ORC poll, 18 points in a poll for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, 14 points in Fox News and Quinnipiac University polls and 15 points in a survey for CBS News and The New York Times.

Assessing the Democratic Party nomination contest, pollster J. Ann Selzer said Sanders “is the one Democrats see as looking out for them – meaning he will build a stronger middle class at the expense of Wall Street. They trust him to do it. In the end, Hillary Clinton has a trust problem.” The poll, for example, found Democratic primary voters by a better than 2-to-1 ratio said Sanders would fight harder than Clinton for the middle class and do the most to rein in the power of Wall Street. More than 60 percent said Sanders cares most about people like them and regard him as the most honest and trustworthy candidate. Only a quarter said that of Clinton.

The new poll came two days after Sanders won 21 more delegates than Clinton in three Western states on Tuesday.

In Idaho on Thursday, Sanders picked up endorsements from Democratic Party Chairman Bert Marley and Pete Gertonson, a national DNC committeeman. “Pent up frustrations of a red state exploded Idaho Caucuses to historic numbers last Tuesday with 78 percent for Bernie Sanders,” Gertonson said. “I’m proud to be an Idaho Democrat representing the people’s choice.” The new backing came in addition to 17 elected delegates Sanders picked up in Idaho.

Once people get to know Bernie and his platform, he gets more votes than Hillary. This has proven to be the case in a majority of the states that have voted.

Bernie Sanders Is Currently Winning the Democratic Primary Race, and I’ll Prove It to You

3/23/16 Seth Abramson

Nobody cares how well a politician does at the ballot box when he or she is running for an office unopposed. What matters is how a politician performs in contested primaries and general elections, as when it really matters — like it will, for instance, this November — you can be certain of a contested election.

With that said, let’s make an important observation: Bernie Sanders has tied or beaten Hillary Clinton in a majority of the actively contested votes this election season.

You doubt it? Okay, let me explain.

Bernie Sanders has terrible name recognition in states where he hasn’t advertised or campaigned yet; meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has universal name recognition everywhere. Realizing this, the Clinton camp pushed hard to rack up the early vote in every state where early voting was an option. They did this not primarily for the reason we’ve been told — because Clinton performs well among older voters, and older voters are more likely to vote early than other age demographics — but rather because they knew that early votes are almost always cast before the election season actually begins in a given state.

That’s right — in each state, most of the early primary voting occurs before the candidates have aired any commercials or held any campaign events. For Bernie Sanders, this means that early voting happens, pretty much everywhere, before anyone knows who he is. Certainly, early voting occurs in each state before voters have developed a sufficient level of familiarity and comfort with Sanders to vote for him.

But on Election Day — among voters who’ve been present and attentive for each candidate’s commercials, local news coverage, and live events — Sanders tends to tie or beat Clinton.

In fact, that’s the real reason Sanders does well in caucuses.

It’s not because caucuses “require a real time investment,” as the media likes to euphemistically say, but because caucuses require that you vote on Election Dayrather than well before it.